AN 85-YEAR-OLD disabled man says new bin bag collection rules will make his life hell.

Thomas Bagley, of Fieldway, Saughall, was outraged when told to put his bin bags outside his house, even though refuse collectors have come in to collect his rubbish for nine years.

The pensioner, who says he is unable to lift anything without losing his balance, suffers from arthritis in his back, arms and hands and had a knee operation for arthritis four years ago. He has had trouble standing up since his spinal cord was damaged in 1969 and he has also been registered blind since 1996.

Mr Bagley said binmen usually come in the back of his house to collect his rubbish from just inside the door, but on Tuesday morning they told him they would not do it anymore.

'I said these bags have been collected from here for the past nine years,' said Mr Bagley,

himself a former binman. 'I made arrangements with the binmen because at the time there were cats and dogs coming and scratching them open.'

He said he phoned the council's refuse department but was offered no explanation for the change. I said I'm disabled and blind and if I bend down I lose one of my sticks, that's it, I just fall over. They will not listen.'

On Wednesday morning the council sent an officer to inspect the site. Mr Bagley said: 'He would not even come through the doors. He told me I have got to put the rubbish outside the back door. But the neighbours put their's out and they have at least four bags and there is no room.'

Mr Bagley lives with his two sons and daughter Rosemary, who is his full-time carer. She said she had to go chasing after the binmen on Tuesday to get them to take their rubbish.

A council spokesman said: 'The terms of contract of our collection company (Focsa) are to collect rubbish from the back door.

'In this particular case we would have to go through the house to get the rubbish. To protect the staff and the company they can't, for insurance reasons, go through Mr Bagley's house.

'It has happened in the past but we would not agree that it has been going on for nine years. Technically the refuse collectors should not have been going into his house in the past.

'We are sure Mr Bagley and his family can make some arrangements for the rubbish to be left in the correct pick-up point.